Sebastian Barry. A Long Long Way

Sebastian Barry. A Long Long Way. London: Faber and Faber, 2005, 294 pp., £ 12.99, ISBN 0-571-21800-8

Doomed volunteers: two great political plays from Ireland

Seamus Byrne's Design for a Headstone (1950) and Brian Friel's Volunteers (1975) are some of the most controversial plays in the canon of Irish drama, exceptional in their explicit political implications. Loosely based on the role of the IRA in the Republic, they achieve a high degree of universality in their discussion of such provocative issues as political radicalism, internment, hunger strike, the role of the Church in society, passive resistance vs. active rebellion, justice vs. humanity, and loyalty vs. betrayal. In their tragic endings, both plays reveal a deep pessimism on the part of their authors

Thomas Crofton Croker's Fairy Legends: A Revaluation

The aim of this paper is to revaluate the achievements of Thomas Crofion Croker as a collector of native legends and traditions of the South West of Ireland and as one of the precursors of twentieth-century short fiction in Ireland. The publication of Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland in 1825 inspires the Grimms' to develop Comparative Folklore Studies, One of Croker's stories, "The Soul Cages" is analysed here to show the way he strategically shaped his narratives improving the traditional oral storytelling technique.The aim of this paper is to revaluate the achievements of Thomas Crofion Croker as a collector of native legends and traditions of the South West of Ireland and as one of the precursors of twentieth-century short fiction in Ireland. The publication of Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland in 1825 inspires the Grimms' to develop Comparative Folklore Studies, One of Croker's stories, "The Soul Cages" is analysed here to show the way he strategically shaped his narratives improving the traditional oral storytelling technique